In various operations, including the making of paper such as corrugated board or the utilization of paper such as in printing presses, large mill rolls are utilized weighing a ton or more and having a lateral dimension and hence a core which may be as much as 96 inches in length and even more. When the mill roll is nearing the end of its run in a continuously operating machine, the splicing on the fly of the leading end of the next roll to the trailing end of the roll which is being used up normally results in several layers of paper being left on the core. While some of the outer plys of the paper on the roll are free or loose and may readily be pulled off, the inner layers may adhere to the core either by reason of the manner in which the edge of the paper at the core has been initially secured to the core or because of lengthy storage. Since the very long core is constructed to support a heavy mill roll and is often utilized in a structure wherein the core is supported not by a continuous shaft within it, but by plugs at the ends, the core itself is an expensive structure and designed to be reused, not merely thrown away.
Because of the size of the core and the number of layers of paper which may still remain thereon or even adhere thereto, removing of the remaining layers of paper from the core and making available the original surface so that a new mill roll may be wound thereon is a difficult task if performed manually and is not always performed thoroughly.